When LJ Martin went down with an injury in the early stretch of 2024, BYU football was seemingly left rudderless in the backfield. Behind Martin, quarterback Jake Retzlaff was left with a great deal of inexperience at tailback, and just in time for a petrifying Big 12 matchup against Avery Johnson and a ranked Kansas State Wildcats side.
Today, we know that game as the night Sione Moa was born.
Shedding one tackle, then another, and yet another, the freshman tailback shed several Wildcat defenders on a wrecking course to the end zone. Spinning, stumbling, and somehow finding his way across the goal line, it was the perfect way to punctuate perhaps the most surprising blowout win in recent memory.
Moa broke down this career-defining score in a recent interview with CougConnect, and some of the details from his perspective are things that viewers probably never would have even though of.
"I didn't even know the play, to be honest. I was going on the wrong side, Jake said 'you're on this side. I'm giving you the ball.' My bad. I go on the other side, he gives me the ball and everything happened. I think at the line of scrimmage, one guy came flying down, his linebacker tripped over him. Things were falling into place. Some guy hit me, I thought that I was done. ... Everything worked out perfect."
"I got hurt that play. The ankle. That guy who got tripped up, he fell right on my ankle and tore the ligament, but the adrenaline kept up. Everything was working out in my favor. I was hurt, I almost fumbled, I didn't know the play. It was a magical moment. Definitely something I'll remember all my life."
BYU Running Back Sione Moa's first touchdown against Kansas State was the perfect exclamation point on one of the most magical nights at LaVell Edwards Stadium. pic.twitter.com/RRU5Tm3TQx
— CougConnect (@CougConnect) July 9, 2026
Moa has struggled to stay active with the team as he spent all of 2025 on the sideline with injuries. He'll be back again this year as the second string rusher behind Martin, and could provide one of the most dangerous one-two rushing punches in the entire Big 12 Conference.
Don't forget about Sione Moa -- he'll be a difference-maker for BYU this season.
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